Turbulent coronal heating and the distribution of nanoflares
arXiv:astro-ph/9705050 · doi:10.1086/310760
Abstract
We perform direct numerical simulations of an externally driven two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic system over extended periods of time to simulate the dynamics of a transverse section of a solar coronal loop. A stationary and large-scale magnetic forcing was imposed, to model the photospheric motions at the magnetic loop footpoints. A turbulent stationary regime is reached, which corresponds to energy dissipation rates consistent with the heating requirements of coronal loops. The temporal behavior of quantities such as the energy dissipation rate show clear indications of intermittency, which are exclusively due to the strong nonlinearity of the system. We tentatively associate these impulsive events of magnetic energy dissipation to the so-called nanoflares. A statistical analysis of these events yields a power law distribution as a function of their energies with a negative slope of 1.5, which is consistent with those obtained for flare energy distributions reported from X-ray observations.
12 pages, Latex (AASTeX), 3 figures, ApJ Lett (in press)
References in corpus (1)
Cited by in corpus (38)
- Heating of the Solar Chromosphere and Corona by Alfven Wave Turbulence
- Power Laws in Solar Flares: Self-Organized Criticality or Turbulence?
- Turbulent coronal heating and the distribution of nanoflares
- Dynamics of braided coronal loops II: Cascade to multiple small-scale reconnection events
- Structures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence: detection and scaling
- Current Sheets Formation in Tangled Coronal Magnetic Fields
- Critical Balance and the Physics of MHD Turbulence
- The Spatial and Temporal Dependence of Coronal Heating by Alfven Wave Turbulence
- Coexistence of Self-Organized Criticality and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Corona
- Shear Photospheric Forcing and the Origin of Turbulence in Coronal Loops
- Scaling law for the heating of solar coronal loops
- Interchange reconnection in a turbulent Corona
- Observational Signatures of Coronal Loop Heating and Cooling Driven by Footpoint Shuffling
- Test-particle acceleration in a hierarchical three-dimensional turbulence model
- Field lines twisting in a noisy corona: implications for energy storage and release, and initiation of solar eruptions
- Scalings of intermittent structures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
- Stochastic coupling of solar photosphere and corona
- On the kinetic equation of linear fractional stable motion and applications to modeling the scaling of intermittent bursts
- Particle Acceleration and Heating in a Turbulent Solar Corona
- Modeling a coronal loop heated by MHD-turbulence nanoflares
- Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulent Cascade of Coronal Loop Magnetic Fields
- Anisotropic turbulent model for solar coronal heating
- Coronal Heating Topology: the Interplay of Current Sheets and Magnetic Field Lines
- Equilibria, Dynamics and Current Sheets Formation in Magnetically Confined Coronae
- Time-Dependent Turbulent Heating of Open Flux Tubes in the Chromosphere, Corona, and Solar Wind
- Magnetic field line twisting by photospheric vortices: energy storage and release
- Temperature inversion in a gravitationally bound plasma: Case of the solar corona
- Subresolution Activity in Solar and Stellar Coronae from Magnetic Field Line Tangling
- Multifractal Solar EUV Intensity Fluctuations and their Implications for Coronal Heating Models
- A Global Survey of EUV Corona Power Spectra
- Comparison of the Scaling Properties of EUV Intensity Fluctuations in Coronal Hole and Quiet-Sun Regions
- Theoretical and Observational Evidence for Coriolis Effects in Coronal Magnetic Fields Via Direct Current Driven Flaring Events
- Temperature and density profiles in the corona of main-sequence stars induced by stochastic heating in the chromosphere
- Effect of the electronic pressure on the energy and magnetic moment of charged test particles in turbulent electromagnetic fields
- Model for the spatio-temporal intermittency of the energy dissipation in turbulent flows
- Self-consistent generation of the ambipolar electric field in collisionless plasmas via multi-mode electrostatics
- Kinetic collisionless model of the solar transition region and corona with spatially intermittent heating
- Fundamental Physical Processes in Coronae: Waves, Turbulence, Reconnection, and Particle Acceleration